Film franchises that never keep the same director

Cafe Society
1

What are some movie franchises (at least 3 movies) that are always changing directors?

Two franchises that are particularly volatile with their director jobs are the Mission Impossible series (3 movies, 3 directors) and Friday The 13th, which has had an incredible 11 directors for 12 movies (only 2 and 3 had the same director).

By contrast, the Harry Potter movies are a model of constancy, with 4 directors for the 8 movies (counting the upcoming split release of Deathly Hallows).

What are some other film series with musical director’s chairs?

2

The first Star Wars trilogy (4, 5, and 6).

4 - Lucas
5 - Kirshner
6 - Marquand

3

Alien - Ridley Scott
Aliens - James Cameron
Alien 3 - David Fincher
Alien Resurrection - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

4

And while I’m at it -
Alien vs Predator - Paul W.S. Anderson
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem - the brothers Strause

Predator - John McTiernan
Predator 2 - Stephen Hopkins

5

I just read that Mission Impossible IV will be directed by Brad Bird. That will make 4 different directors.

Still, I think Ferret Herder has found the more impressive series with all the Alien/Predator movies.

6

James Bond - 22 films, 10 different directors. John Glen did 5 in a row. Nobody else did more than 3, and most did 1.

7

silenus took the one I was going to mention, the most obvious. So I’ll have to do a different one – The Howling, with each of eight films directed by a different director (except Phillipe Mora, who did two of them). After the first two, though, the only continuity between them is the name.

8

Off topic, but is anyone else ridiculously excited by this?

9

The Halloween franchise: ten films, nine directors, and it wasn’t until film #10 that someone repeated.

10

Police Academy has had six directors over seven films; looks like only Jerry Paris repeated, on parts 2 and 3. (And, oh God, IMDb reports an 8th installment is in development.)

11

The Star Trek franchise has gone through a number of directors:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Robert Wise
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Nicholas Meyer
Star Trek III: In Search of Spock: Leonard Nemoy
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: Leonard Nemoy
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: William Shatner
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: Nicholas Meyer

So 4 directors over 6 films for the “old series” films. Moving on:

Star Trek: Generation: David Carson
Star Trek: First Contact: Jonathon Frakes
Star Trek: Insurrection: Jonathon Frakes
Star Trek: Nemesis: Stuart Baird

3 directors over 4 films for the “Next Gen” films. And finally,

Star Trek: J.J. Abrams

Overall: 11 films, 8 directors, nobody directing more than 2 movies.

12

The Terminator franchise. 3 directors between 4 movies with Cameron repeating twice.

13

The Twilight Saga has had 3 different directors for the first three films.

not that anybody here cares, of course.

14

The Nightmare on Elm Street series went 7 films with only Wes Craven repeating (the original and the meta-recap “New Nightmare”). If you add in the Freddy vs. Jason crossover and the recent reboot you get 9 films with 8 different directors.

The Japanese Godzilla series had 11 directors for 28 films. Almost half the films were done by two, Ishiro Hondo (8) and Jun Fukuda (5). 5 directors made only one.

15

Almost all series do this. It’s rare for situations like Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider-Man where they have a consistent Director for the length of the series. And now POTC’s new story (series?) is under new tutelage.

And it’s because Directors get burnt out dealing with the same story for an extended period, and desperately desire to break away and do something new.